When you go up against someone bigger than yourself, how does your approach and plan of attack change?
I'm not a small guy, but I'm far from the biggest. For the longest time, I thought that I was roughly the same size as JD, another student who has the same rank that I have. Last week, two people told me that I was doing very well for going against someone that much bigger than I. That little seed--that when I fought JD i was fighting someone bigger--took root and grew.
Tonight, I worked with JD after class, and I realized in the middle of the roll that where I was mentally while rolling with him tonight was not the same place that I was last week and the week before. Tonight, I was much more willing to give away a position and let him muscle me around. His hip movement is great, so he always makes it tough for me to keep him down, but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't fight for it or use his momentum to get to a better position.
This is frustrating on at least two levels. Level one--I'm letting myself get away with not working as hard because someone is a little bigger than me or a little stronger than me. This is not how smaller guys beat bigger guys. Level two--I'm not thinking about how to use technique against strength and athleticism. Again--this is not how smaller guys beat bigger guys. Most of the bigger guys I roll with have one of two disadvantages: they are either (a) older than me by 15-20 years, or (b) newer than me to the art. So I can usually either frustrate them or bait and switch, I can rely on my deeper technical knowledge and familiarity. So JD is a great opponent for me. And naturally, now that I've realized this, I won't be able to train with him for another two weeks as he has Air Force Reserve deployment or something starting at the end of this week.
90-95% of my training partners are bigger than me. In fact, there is just ONE person (out of 100 or so regular training partners, and probably a total of 200 people at my school) who is actually smaller than me and isn't a child.
ReplyDeleteI find that with people anywhere near my size (i.e. of any height, and not more than 40 lbs heavier than me) I will do and play whatever. When they get heavier than that, I try not to be on the bottom.